On 14th January 2023, Saturday (30th Poush 2079), Teach For Nepal (TFN) and Teach For Nepal Alumni Association (TFNAA) organized the 10th Teach For Nepal Alumni Leadership Forum (ALF) in Kathmandu. Altogether 82 Alumni joined the ALF on the day and participated in different segments of the event. Additionally, there were TFN Staff members, TFN Board members and TFN Stakeholders also present at the event. In total 124 people joined the ALF 2023.
The ALF began at 9:15 AM with a Panel discussion on “Why Public Systems?” The Panel members were Mr. Teeka Bhattarai (representing the public education system), Dr Biraj Karmacharya (representing the public health system) and Mr. Bhusan Tuladhar (representing the public transportation system). The panel was moderated by Swastika Shrestha, CEO and Co-founder of TFN. It ended with a question and answer session with the attending TFN Alumni.

After the panel discussion, the program preceded the Managing For Impact (MFI) session, in short, MFI, is a platform for continuous leadership and professional growth and development of TFN Alumni. MFI sessions were divided into two categories: i) MFI Knowledge-based sessions which were 90 minutes in length and ii) MFI Skills-based sessions which were 120 minutes in length. In order to meet the diverse needs of the Alumni multiple MFI sessions were run in parallel which allowed the Alumni to sign up for their most preferred MFI session, both in the knowledge category and skills category.


The MFI knowledge-based sessions included i) School Level Education Plans and Policies of Nepal Government facilitated by Dr. Shree Krishna Wagle ii) Strategic Communication facilitated by Ms. Sanjana Shrestha and iii) Public Policy Analysis facilitated by Mr. Nirnaya Bhatta. Similarly, the MFI skills based sessions included i) Systems Thinking facilitated by Mr. Ashutosh Tiwari ii) Monitoring and Evaluation facilitated by Mr. Ankit Babu Adhikari and iii) Continuous growth and leadership (Personal Branding) facilitated by Mr. Saswat Karki. By the end, each alumnus had an opportunity of taking one MFI knowledge-based session and one MFI skills-based session.


Following the MFI sessions, a quick update on the working modality between TFN Alumni Impact Unit and TFNAA was briefed to the Alumni by Sristi Shrestha, President TFNAA and Anuja Koirala, Program Manager, Alumni Unit at TFN. During the same time, TFNAA also launched its official website and gave a quick overview of the key features of the website.

By 4:00 PM invited guests arrived at ALF to visit the Alumni exhibition. Altogether 12 stalls were set up by TFN Alumni where they endorsed their products and services to the TFN Alumni community, TFN Board Members, TFN Stakeholders including donors and TFN Staff members. This was a perfect moment for the Alumni for networking and for capturing the moment in photographs. By 5:00 PM all the event participants gathered in the main hall to listen to the Alumni Talk, a quick presentation of Alumni success stories in diverse career paths. Among the Alumni Talk presenters were Alumna Bhawana Shrestha, Cohort 2013, Bikash Deshar, Cohort 2014 and Prajwal Khadka Cohort 2013. The stories of success and passion of these Alumni kept the audience engaged, and inspired and also provided some sense of collective mission to the Alumni. Swastika Shrestha, CEO gave a closing speech at the end and Krishna Kumar KC, Chief of Staff TFN shared a few words of encouragement with the audience.

The end of ALF was designed to allow Alumni to have some fun through talent shows and performances. Alumni from different cohorts, including, Ravi Maharjan, Kritesh Bhatta, Ruma Maharjan, Sanjay Thapa, Mingma Tenzing KC., Sandeep Dahal, Ashutosh Parajuli, Alish Gurung, Sajan Shrestha, Nawang Sherpa and Nimmi Basnet.


For Teach For Nepal to achieve its mission, “One Day All Children Will Attain An Excellent Education,” Teach For Nepal Alumni must grow as leaders to enable systemic change across Nepal in education and beyond. Post-Fellowship for TFN Alumni, it means sustaining their commitment to further learning and exercises in leadership development, enabling and advancing as professionals of excellence and high impact and sustaining collective efforts in the mission of education along with fellow Alumni. Today, 376* TFN Alumni have either been serving as professionals in diverse sectors – with nearly fifty-eight per cent involved directly in education impact – and/or pursuing higher education in Nepal and abroad (Global Alumni Survey 2022). Regardless of the levels of their roles and the sectors of work, management skills stand crucial to the impact Alumni can have as professionals and to their pace of growth as leaders. Therefore, in line with its own mission and vision around leadership necessary for systemic change, TFN intends to extend its investment in the leadership growth of TFN Alumni post-Fellowship.
